The XRP Ledger has achieved a significant security milestone by blocking flash loan attacks that have cost DeFi protocols billions across other networks. According to a draft XRPL amendment filed this week, flash loan attacks are structurally impossible on the XRP Ledger due to its atomic transaction design and lack of composable intra-transaction calls. This architectural advantage has spared the XRP Ledger from the exploit class that has drained over $2.8 billion from cross-chain bridges since 2021, with recent DeFi exploits on Thorchain, Drift Protocol, and KelpDAO totaling more than $600 million in losses. The XRP Ledger's design ensures that transactions either fully succeed or fail completely, unlike Ethereum where flash loan attacks can manipulate oracles and drain poorly designed pools with minimal risk to attackers.
XRP is experiencing significant institutional support despite broader market challenges, with $116 million flowing into XRP ETFs during May 2026. This contrasts sharply with outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the same period, highlighting growing institutional confidence in XRP's potential. On-chain data reveals sell-side liquidity for XRP is drying up, suggesting a supply shock setup that could benefit the cryptocurrency. The institutional inflows come as Bitcoin dominance rises while altcoins face bearish sentiment and technical weakness, making XRP's performance particularly noteworthy in the current market environment.
Chris Larsen, Ripple's co-founder and executive chairman, has shown new blockchain activity in his XRP wallets containing about 2.58 billion XRP valued at $3.5 billion. According to latest reports, these movements come just before the Texas Democratic primary runoff and follow past patterns where wallet transfers coincided with significant XRP market shifts. Larsen's wallets have historically moved large amounts to exchanges during price peaks, influencing market sentiment. The activity also aligns with Larsen's political donations amid ongoing regulatory discussions affecting XRP's classification. Meanwhile, XRP trades near $1.35 as CME prepares to launch 24/7 XRP futures on May 29, with Larsen's unrealized gains on XRP positions totaling $764.2 million.
Tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger have crossed $3 billion in total value, including the Ripple-JPMorgan-Mastercard-Ondo Finance pilot last month that processed a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption in under five seconds. This growing DeFi footprint is driving institutional interest, with the draft AMM amendment proposing concentrated liquidity and StableSwap-style pools that could close the capital-efficiency gap holding XRPL DeFi behind Ethereum. If the AMM amendment passes, it would open the chain to a wider set of trading and yield strategies, potentially making XRPL DeFi liquidity attractive to institutional capital deployment at scale.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has delivered a surprisingly strong endorsement of XRP, praising it as a superior 'Web2.5' alternative to dominant centralized stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Circle's USDC. According to reports from crypto.news, Hoskinson stated 'I believe in open standards, open protocols, and open ecosystems' and emphasized his preference for XRP because builders do not need Ripple's permission to use the XRP Ledger. The comment marked a notable shift in tone after years of public tension with parts of the XRP community, with Angry Crypto Show also carrying the same quote and highlighting Hoskinson's view tied to open access. 'I think XRP as a Web2.5 product is better than Tether or Circle. I like it a lot more,' Hoskinson added, expressing clear preference for XRP's underlying open ecosystem.
Hoskinson's praise stood out because his relationship with the XRP community has often been tense. As reported by crypto.news, some XRP supporters have linked him to the ''''''''ETHgate'''''''' theory, which claims Ethereum received favorable treatment from regulators before Ripple faced SEC action. Hoskinson has repeatedly rejected these claims, arguing he left Ethereum in 2014 and had no role in later action against XRP or Ripple. In mid-May, he voiced his frustration on X, pointing out the logical flaws in the accusations: 'I was pushed out of Ethereum in June of 2014, and since then they have spent 12 years shitting on me, including nasty books, but then I decided to years later to coordinate with them to help Ethereum attack XRP?' Hoskinson argued that the XRP ecosystem relies too heavily on Ripple's corporate leadership, stating 'If XRP is so centralized that criticism of a single person's conduct and lobbying means the ecosystem is shut off, then they aren't decentralized.'
